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Social Sciences: Recent submissions

Visual representations of prisons and their inmates are common in the
news and social media, with stories about riots, squalor, drugs, selfharm
and suicide hitting the headlines. Prisoners’ families are left to
worry about the implications of such events on their kin, while those
incarcerated and less able to understand social cues, norms and rules,
are vulnerable to deteriorating mental health at best, to death at worst.
As part of the life-story method in my research with offenders who are
on the autism spectrum, have mental health problems and/or have
learning difficulties, and prisoner’s mothers, I asked participants to take
photographs, reflecting upon their experiences. Photographs in this case,
were primarily used to help respondents consider and articulate their
feelings in follow-up interviews. Notably, seeing (and imagining) is often
how we make a connection to something (object or feeling), or someone
(relationships), such that images in fiction, news/social media, drama,
art, film and photographs can shape the way people think and behave –
indeed feel about things and people. Images and representations ought
to be taken seriously in researching social life, as how we interpret
photographs, paintings, stories and television shows is based on our own
imaginings, biography, culture and history. Therefore, we look at and
process an image before words escape, by ‘seeing’ and imagining. How
my participants and I ‘collaborate’ in doing visual methods and then how
we make meaning of the photographs in storying their feelings, is
insightful. As it is, I wanted to enable my participants to make and
create their own stories via their photographs and narratives, whilst
connecting to them, along with my own interpretation and subjectivities.

Personalised Nutrition allows individual variation in dietary, lifestyle, anthropometric, phenotypic and/or genomic information to be considered when giving dietary advice. Compared to ‘generic’ dietary health messages, personalised dietary advice has been shown more likely to result in healthy dietary change. Personalised regimes can help clients in this endeavour by putting them in control and taking into consideration individual propensity for behaviour change, motives for food choice as well as social and lifestyle factors impacting upon the eating context. Provision of personalised nutrition services across Europe should consider inter-country differences in perceived barriers to uptake of personalised nutrition including those associated with the process from the collecting of information and taking of biological samples through to how the results are interpreted and delivered. Irrespective of European country, potential consumers appear to trust health professionals such as dietitians over commercial agents to provide personalised nutrition. Dieticians, therefore, are likely to play a key role in making personalised nutrition happen in the future. Organisations representing nutrition and dietetics professionals will need to be consulted for guidance on how to address the ethical and legal issues around personalised nutrition and regulate practice. A future is envisaged where commercial personalised nutrition will work with existing health providers in bringing the benefits of personalised nutrition to the wider public.

The aim of this study was to investigate age-related differences in dual task performance by using an upper limb proprioceptive task. Twenty-eight younger (18–30 years) and 28 older (>60 years) healthy adults performed circle tracing and serial subtraction tasks separately and concurrently. The tasks had two levels of difficulty: easy and hard. The circle tracing task included direct (easy) and indirect (hard) visual feedback conditions, and it was paired with serial subtraction by twos (easy) or threes (hard). We found that older adults were significantly slower than younger adults across all conditions and had significantly greater dual task costs when they performed circle tracing with easy serial subtraction. Higher levels of task difficulty were associated with slower speed in both groups. We found no age differences in accuracy. Participants either traded speed for accuracy or accuracy for speed regardless of age group. Overall, the findings suggest that speed and accuracy may be affected differently during dual tasking. In addition, older adults may rely more extensively on proprioceptive feedback to guide upper limb movement compared with younger adults.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is associated with impairments in dual-task performance. Despite that, only a few studies have investigated dual-tasking in HD. We examined dual-task performance in 15 participants in the early stages of HD and 15 healthy controls. Participants performed direct circle tracing (able to view arm) and indirect circle tracing (arm obscured) either on their own (single tasks) or paired with serial subtraction by twos or threes (dual tasks). Overall, our results suggested that HD participants were significantly slower and less accurate than controls. Both groups were slower and less accurate when performing indirect circle tracing compared with direct circle tracing. HD participants experienced greater dual-task interference in terms of accuracy when performing direct circle tracing compared with indirect circle tracing. Despite that, controls were more inclined to speed–accuracy trade-offs compared with HD participants. Importantly, unlike controls, HD participants were not disproportionately faster when performing direct circle tracing as a single task compared with the dual-task conditions. Our results suggest that simple tasks place greater attentional demands on HD participants compared with controls. These findings support that impaired automaticity may be responsible for some of the attentional deficits manifested in HD.

Objective: To test the efficacy of a tablet computer training intervention to improve
cognitive abilities of older adults. Design: Prospective randomized controlled trial.
Setting: Community-based aging intervention study, Edinburgh, UK. Participants:
Forty-eight healthy older adults aged 65 to 76 years were recruited at baseline with
no or minimal tablet experience;43 completed follow-up testing. Intervention: Twentytwo
participants attended a weekly 2-hour class for 10 weeks during which they learned
how to use a tablet and various applications on it. Measurements: A battery of cognitive
tests from theWAIS-IV measuring the domains ofVerbal Comprehension, Perceptual
Processing,Working Memory, and Processing Speed, as well as health, psychological,
and well-being measures. Results: A 2× 2 mixed model ANOVA suggested that the tablet
intervention group (N = 22) showed greater improvements in Processing Speed (η2 = 0.10)
compared with controls (N = 21), but did not differ in Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual
Processing, or Working Memory (η2 ranged from −0.03 to 0.04). Conclusions:
Engagement in a new mentally challenging activity (tablet training) was associated
with improved processing speed.Acquiring skills in later life, including those related
to adopting new technologies, may therefore have the potential to reduce or delay cognitive
changes associated with ageing.It is important to understand how the development
of these skills might further facilitate everyday activities, and also improve older adults’
quality of life.

Background: Past research has found cancellation tasks to be reliable markers of cognitive decline in Huntington’s disease (HD). Objective: The aim of this study was to extend previous findings by adopting the use of a dual task paradigm that paired cancellation and auditory tasks. Methods: We compared performance in 14 early stage HD participants and 14 healthy controls. HD participants were further divided into groups with and without cognitive impairment. Results: Results suggested that HD participants were not slower or less accurate compared with controls; however, HD participants showed greater dual task interference in terms of speed. In addition, HD participants with cognitive impairment were slower and less accurate than HD participants with no cognitive impairment, and showed greater dual task interference in terms of speed and accuracy. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that dual task measures may be a better measure of cognitive processing in HD compared with more traditional measures.

Objective: This study investigated whether dual tasks make disproportionately high demands in Huntington’s disease (HD) compared with controls, and also tested the Multiple Resources Theory. Method:
Thirteen HD participants and 13 controls completed 2 dual task sets that varied in difficulty and
complexity: Set 1 paired simple choice reaction time (RT) with digit forward, and Set 2 paired complex
choice RT with digit backward. Results: We found that HD participants were overall slower; however,
although they maintained similar levels of accuracy in the simple choice RT tasks with controls, their
accuracy decreased in the complex choice RT tasks. In addition, we found that HD participants were
more susceptible to speed-accuracy trade-offs. Despite that, they did not show greater dual task costs than
controls. Conclusions: Overall, our findings do not support the Multiple Resources Theory, but they do
provide some support for the Unitary Resource Theory and the attentional impairment hypothesis.

Background: New technologies provide opportunities for the delivery of broad, flexible
interventions with older adults. Focus groups were conducted to: (1) understand older
adults’ familiarity with, and barriers to, interacting with new technologies and tablets; and
(2) utilize user-engagement in refining an intervention protocol.
Methods: Eighteen older adults (65–76 years old; 83.3%female) who were novice tablet
users participated in discussions about their perceptions of and barriers to interacting
with tablets. We conducted three separate focus groups and used a generic qualitative
design applying thematic analysis to analyse the data. The focus groups explored
attitudes toward tablets and technology in general. We also explored the perceived
advantages and disadvantages of using tablets, familiarity with, and barriers to interacting
with tablets. In two of the focus groups, participants had previous computing experience
(e.g., desktop), while in the other, participants had no previous computing experience.
None of the participants had any previous experience with tablet computers.
Results: The themes that emerged were related to barriers (i.e., lack of instructions
and guidance, lack of knowledge and confidence, health-related barriers, cost);
disadvantages and concerns (i.e., too much and too complex technology, feelings
of inadequacy, and comparison with younger generations, lack of social interaction
and communication, negative features of tablets); advantages (i.e., positive features of
tablets, accessing information, willingness to adopt technology); and skepticism about
using tablets and technology in general. After brief exposure to tablets, participants
emphasized the likelihood of using a tablet in the future.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that most of our participants were eager to adopt
new technology and willing to learn using a tablet. However, they voiced apprehension
about lack of, or lack of clarity in, instructions and support. Understanding older adults’
perceptions of technology is important to assist with introducing it to this population and
maximize the potential of technology to facilitate independent living.

The global language of scholarly research is English and so the obstacle of getting noticed is montainous when the article is not written in the English language. Indeed, despite rapid advances in technology, the “tyranny of language” creates a segmentation inhibiting scholarly research and innovation generally. Mass translation of non-English language articles is neither feasible nor desirable. Our paper proposes a strategy for remedying this segmentation – such that, the work of non-English language scholars become more discoverable. The core piece of this strategy is a “reverse-engineering” [RE] application of Faff’s (2015, 2017a) “pitching research” template. More specifically, we provide access to translated versions of the “cued” template across thirty-three different languages, and most notably for this journal, including the Romanian and French languages. Further, we showcase an illustrative dual language French-English example.

Objective: We conducted a U.K.-wide survey to collect information on people's beliefs, fears, perceptions, and attitudes to cognitive aging.
Methods: This community-based aging survey included 3,146 adults aged 40 years and over.
Results: Respondents believed memory might be the earliest cognitive skill to decline (mean: 59.4 years), followed by speed of thinking (mean: 64.9). Those in their 40s were more pessimistic, because they estimated cognitive changes would start up to 15 years earlier than respondents aged over 70. Having a purpose in life, healthy eating, challenging the mind, sleep, and physical activity ranked higher in terms of perceived importance for maintaining or improving cognitive skills. However, less than 50% engaged in any of these activities. Although 91% believed there are things people can do to maintain or improve their cognitive skills, more than 40% were unsure or did not know how to do so. Respondents who strongly agreed that changes in cognitive skills might be a sign of something more serious were significantly more likely to do various activities to benefit their cognitive skills.
Conclusion: Results suggest that people are less aware of the potential cognitive benefits of certain activities, such as exercise and diet. It is important to build awareness about the benefits of lifestyles and activities for cognitive health.

Background: We wanted to understand older adults’ experiences of learning how to
use a tablet computer in the context of an intervention trial, including what they found
helpful or unhelpful about the tablet training, to guide future intervention studies.
Methods: Mixed methods study using questionnaire and focus group approaches.
Forty-three participants aged between 65 and 76 years old from the “Tablet for Healthy
Ageing” study (comprising 22 in the intervention group and 21 controls) completed
a post-intervention tablet experience questionnaire. Those who completed the tablet
training intervention were invited to share their experiences of engaging with new
technology in post-intervention focus groups. We conducted three separate focus
groups with 14 healthy older adults (10 females).
Results: Questionnaire data suggested that the overall experience of the 22 participants
who participated in the tablet training intervention was positive. The majority of
participants said that it was likely or very likely they would use a tablet in the future. The
focus group themes that emerged were related to the perception of tablet training, the
experience of using tablets, and suggestions for future studies. Participants mentioned
that their confidence was increased, that they enjoyed being part of a social group and
downloading applications, but they also felt challenged at times. Advantages of using
tablets included the ability to keep in touch with family and friends, a motivation to
contribute to the community, and the potential for tablets to improve mental abilities and
overall health and wellbeing. Participants made suggestions that would enable tablet
usage, including improvement of features, and suggestions that would improve future
tablet training studies, including smaller classes.
Conclusion: Our findings have implications for the development of interventions utilizing
new technologies that might promote the health and wellbeing of older adults.

The coming together of parenting and routine posting on social networking sites has become a visible and recognisable theme and the term ‘sharenting’ has found a place in everyday talk to describe some forms of parental digital sharing practices. However, while social media has undoubtedly provided a space for parents to share experiences and receive support around parenting, sharenting remains a contestable issue. Thus, one reading of sharenting would be as a display of good parenting as mothers ‘show off’ their children as a marker of success. However, the term also can be used pejoratively to describe parental oversharing of child-focused images and content. In this paper we explore the practice of sharenting in terms of pride, affect, and the politics of digital mothering in a neoliberal context to conclude that sharenting can be best understood as a complex affective and intersectional accomplishment that produces motherhood and family as communicative activities within digital social practices.

This is a reply to Sue Mitchell and Francisco J. Eiroa-Orosa’s ‘Love
your enemy.’ The latter seeks to explore the self-transcending
potential of altruistic behaviour through a dialogical paradigm. It
not only initiates fresh discussion on the subject of altruism, but
also advances new discussion on Bakhtinian aesthetics. For the
continuation of this forward momentum, we suggest a more
nuanced approach to the placement of the ‘researcher’ within
the applied methodological matrix. Similarly, we also advocate
for the synthesising of research tools, often appropriated by theological
studies, into said methodological matrix.
This is a reply to:
Mitchell, Sue and Eiroa-Orosa, Francisco J. 2018. “Love your enemy? An
aesthetic discourse analysis of self-transcendence in values-motivated
altruism.” Global Discourse https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2018.
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